Rankin at the Top : Already Big in Canada, the Musical Family Seeks a U.S. Presence

It’s reassuring to know that terrifying diseases aren’t the only things that spread from remote areas, infecting populations via personal contact. There’s also the Rankin Family.

In six years the group of three sisters and two brothers has gone from being an outfit that served and reflected the traditional culture in the semi-sequestered community of Mabou in West Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, to major stardom in Canada, selling more than a million albums (in a nation where it takes only 100,000 sales to earn platinum status) and this past year earning four top Juno awards, the Canadian equivalents of the Grammy.

Through frequent live performances in Great Britain, the Rankins are on their way toward similar popularity there, and now they have embarked on their first major jaunt through the United States. They play the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana on Tuesday night.

As heard on their most recent album, “North Country,” the Rankins’ music is an engaging blend of Celtic tradition--which still runs pure in their remote hometown--with folk, country and pop influences. The group’s chief songwriter, Jimmy Rankin, says he is moved by everything from centuries-old ballads to Hank Williams to Elton John.

He says he and his siblings--singing sisters Cookie, Heather and Raylene Rankin and multi-instrumentalist brother John Morris Rankin--don’t have any qualms about coming from a country where they are major stars to play in front of U.S. audiences who have never heard of them.

On the contrary, he said during a recent interview, “it’s very exciting, because you’re playing to people who have no expectation of your music, so you’re not under the gun to deliver any specific kind of show.

“There’s an immediacy that’s hard to capture on record. And usually after people see our concert, they’re converted fans. They’ll buy the tape and come see us again.”

The five, who come from a family of 12 siblings, have been singing together at home since they were children (they are now in their late 20s to mid-30s). When they began to sing in public, it usually was at community dances.

“I think it’s very important for people to have a sense of identity, and in that neck of the woods there is that, a feeling of our Scotch heritage,” Jimmy said. “Our particular part of Nova Scotia is somewhat isolated, so traditional music tended to stay alive longer than in other places. Celtic fiddling is the strongest thing there. It was important for us growing up and still is a prominent part of the act, where the girls sing in Gaelic and do the traditional step dancing in the concerts.

“But also, for years when we were in high school, we’d play in the dance halls for local functions. And in order to keep people entertained for four hours we had to play a lot of different styles--country, rock ‘n’ roll. We were influenced by what we heard on the radio.”

For a time, the band members went their separate ways, to college and various vocations; only John Morris was making a living at music with his fiddling and other instruments. In 1989, they regrouped and did a tour of Nova Scotia and were so warmly received that they stuck with it.

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At the time, the Canadian music scene was still largely enamored of its southern neighbor; little home-grown music was becoming popular, and the Rankins were unable to find any interest from record labels. They now think that worked to their advantage.

“We couldn’t get a label behind us and quit looking for one,” Jimmy said. “From six years ago until three years ago we were independent, doing our own financing and making our own records, with family members doing our booking and handling our distribution. And we sold close to 100,000 units on our own. Then the labels took interest in us.

“Those three years were very important and effective for us because we learned the industry from the grass-roots level. By the time a label got interested, we had proven ourselves, and that gives us a lot of leverage to do what we want to do, to basically make the records we want to make without being under the gun from the label telling us how to do it.

“A lot of groups are signed by a label before they make a name for themselves, and they’re under pressure, and end up with the label telling them what to record, how and with what producer. It’s the exact opposite with us. There’s very little input, none actually, from the record company telling us what to do.”

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In the last six years, the Rankins also have seen a shift in their country’s music industry priorities.

“They’ve really been getting into Canadian music now as opposed to music that’s piped in from other parts of the world,” Jimmy said. “So there’s a burgeoning Canadian music scene happening, and I think it’s working out to be a very good launching ground for acts like the Crash Test Dummies and Sarah MacLachlan.”

The Rankin Family is currently signed to E.M.I. in Canada. In the United States, the “North Country” album is being marketed on Guardian Records, a new label designed to promote Canadian acts.

For its next album, the group elected to record in Nashville with Mary-Chapin Carpenter’s producer, John Jennings. They will be putting the finishing touches on the album later this month, when their U.S. tour has ended.

“It’s been a blast and a half so far,” Jimmy said. “I think this record is going to be more to the floor, more the sound of playing live in the studio and going for immediacy with all its glitches.”

* The Rankin Family and Jimi B play Tuesday at the Galaxy Concert Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana. 8 p.m. $19.50. (714) 957-0600. * Hear the Rankin Family

* To hear a sample of the album “North Country,” call TimesLine at 808-8463 and press *5581.

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